


The Sum of its Parts

by MarvelousMenagerie (HiddenOne)



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Afghanistan, Caves, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-14 09:42:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13005045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenOne/pseuds/MarvelousMenagerie
Summary: Steve has a mission that Tony isn't going to like. Steve doesn't like it either - turns out, Steve really hates caves too.





	The Sum of its Parts

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Stony Bingo prompt "cave"

“Are we clear, Captain?”

“Yes, sir,” Steve confirms with a nod.

“Then your ride departs at 0500 tomorrow,” Director Fury declares before sweeping out of the room and onto his next meeting.

Steve lets out a small sigh as he flips through the file in front of him. It doesn’t take him long; the file is thin. Minimal intelligence is typical for the types of missions he runs, though, given his skillset for the higher risk ones. Steve is more likely to survive than another team. Still, he doesn’t have to like it.

“Tell him,” Natasha suggests as she closes her own file, an identical copy. She stands from the conference table and pauses, but when Steve doesn’t make a move to join her she heads for the door.

“It’s classified,” Steve deflects, drumming his fingers on top of the last page.

Natasha raises an eyebrow. “So is my natural hair color.”

“That was not my fault!”

 

**C** is for cold 

Steve shivers. He’s familiar with the process - overly so. He intentionally doesn’t count the number of times he has woken up in the middle of the night, under three blankets and teeth already chattering, since he was found in the ice.

Natasha sleeps curled up underneath a thermal blanket, only one corner tucked up to allow her to breathe. Steve stands guard, keeping watch, and tries to quiet the movements of his body in case there’s someone else in the dark who could notice his movements.

Steve knows cold. He knows ice in his veins, freezing water in his lungs, blood and bones frozen from the inside out. This is different. Here the desert air leeches his own heat from him, the breeze spiriting away all of his body’s efforts to keep warm. First skin, then blood, then the rest - freezing from the outside in. A long slow suction that offers false hope, fools his body into shivering and thinking it can hold out.

And Steve wears an insulated stealth suit, Stark-designed. He also doesn’t have a hole in his chest filled with metal that would cool his body even quicker.

Steve hates the cold, and he hates that Tony knows what it is to hate the cold too.

 

**A** is for Afghanistan 

When Natasha gets bored with long stakeouts, she starts gossiping. Unfortunately that very event happens when they’re tucked up in a corner they had picked precisely because any sounds they made wouldn’t carry downwind.

“You didn’t tell him,” she sighs.

Steve sighs too. “Not exactly.”

“What did you tell him?” she asks, voice flat. Still, she doesn’t look away from watching their potential target through her scope, so Steve has no reason to reprimand her.

Steve grimaces. “You know, I figured once I had a relationship that you’d stop meddling…”

Natasha’s lips twist. “Why would you think that? Now answer the question.”

Steve rolls his eyes. “I told him that I had a mission of unknown length,” Steve says, repeating the phrase he’s allowed to officially say, “...and then I told him he wouldn’t like it.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah.” Steve blows out a breath. “That wasn’t _his_ reaction.”

“Let me guess. You came right out and told him - excuse me, you implied - you had a mission in Afghanistan and then fought about it all night, rather than sex him up first and then tell him when he’s too exhausted and pliant to argue.”

“Now you tell me,” Steve grumbles.

 

**V** is for vengeance 

With Hydra, it’s personal.

 

**E** is for explosions 

The day that Steve and Natasha go deep into the caves to observe their targets, they miss their check-in due to poor reception.

Less than an hour later, Steve hears the sounds of repulsors echo through the walls of the cave tunnels. The Iron Man armor soon lands in front of them.  

Steve wars with anger, exasperation, and understanding. Eventually he sighs. “Hi Tony. We’re fine.”

“You’re better than fine, now you have back-up,” Tony offers as he pops open the faceplate. He has a grin on his face wide enough that it almost masks the wild-look in his eyes.

“Now we’ve lost the element of surprise,” Natasha points out. She’s tense, alert, but also amused. “Fury won’t be pleased.”

“Is he really ever, though? I mean what does it take for that guy to crack a smile?” Tony asks.

“Enough, now we need a new game plan,” Steve orders and then quickly sketches out how the three of them can surround and capture the burgeoning Hydra cell growing in the vacuum left by Ten Rings. The Iron Man armor loses maneuverability in the narrow tunnels but should be able to withstand the weaponry that Steve and Natasha have seen so far. The shield is particularly effective with the targets all lined up, and Natasha is most effective in close quarters anyway. The mission is still salvageable, just more difficult with their presence announced in flashing red and gold.

Steve holds Tony back for a moment as Natasha slinks forward to get into position.

“Open up for me real quick,” Steve orders, knocking on the helmet. The faceplate retracts, and Steve grimaces at the determined look on Tony’s face. He wishes he could tell Tony to leave, to get out of the caves that press on Tony more and more every minute, and Steve would if there was even a chance Tony would actually leave. Instead, Steve leans forward and presses his lips to Tony’s, light and quick. “Let’s do this and go home.”

“Nice pep talk, Cap,” Tony drawls, but then he grins. “There’s a great falafel place some two hundred miles west, we should go check it out after we’re done mopping up here.”

“I love falafel,” Natasha chimes in on the comms.

“Is it just me, or does she enjoy third-wheeling our dates?” Tony asks.

Steve’s new plan goes south quickly when five minutes into the confrontation, stray repulsor fire hits an unlabeled storage tank that explodes.

“My bad, that was definitely my fault,” Tony admits as he swoops down and collects Steve and Natasha before rocketing through the tunnels away from the chain reaction. With his hands holding onto them both, Tony only has the boot thrusters to steer. Steve gets clipped several times against the walls until Natasha frees one of Tony’s gauntlets by sliding onto the back of the armor, wrapping her hands around Tony’s neck and clinging.

The entire mountain shakes as Tony races through the tunnels. They’ve left the fire and flammables behind, but rocks fall in front and behind them and Tony doesn’t have the space to maneuver. Steve reaches over to protect Natasha’s head with his shield. He isn’t sure that getting crushed by rocks is a better way to go then freezing in ice.

“Everyone hang on, JARVIS found us a shortcut,” Tony announces.

Tony redirects them up, into a tunnel that has a small circle of light at the top narrows alarmingly quickly.

“Elbows in,” Tony cautions, and then the armor scrapes against rock on the left side to give Steve more space on the right, and then they’re bursting into open air.

Steve takes a big breath of fresh air and decides he hates caves, too.

"Take us home, Tony," he sighs.

"Falafel first," Natasha orders.


End file.
